Israel and Palestinian Cease Fire

The land of Israel is a turbulent one.  The Palestinians in Gaza have a much different take on the future of Jerusalem and the entire region than does the Israelis.  At least this is true for the Hamas which has taken control of the Palestinian authority.  How else should the Jewish land of Israel react to decades of threats and violence?

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We can argue Middle East history till dawn and beyond but what cannot be disputed is the fact that the Jewish people have been under constant threat of annihilation for thousands of years.  It is true that the nations have converged against Israel.  If you were a trapped animal wouldn't your survival instincts take over?  It's the same here only the Israeli people still put their faith in that Higher Power to sustain them and to justify them in the end.

There is a point of "enough is enough" and the pursuit of engaging the enemy must and should progress till the end.  In any conflict there will be innocent casualties.  HOWEVER, let us not forget which side uses their own people as shields not only to protect their own weapons but also to gain global sympathy.  Let's not forget that as the world readily condemns Israel for the massive amounts of innocent dead.  Let us not forget!

Being of the tribe of Manasseh I am proud to have the association of Israel.  The Palestinian people are blessed as well but the world needs to understand that we all have the right to survive as long as we covenant to coexist in peace.  Being all our planet, those who cannot sustain the foundation of coexistence should be suppressed in their expansion of terrorism and moral decay.

The Hamas tunnels are an imminent threat toward Israel.  The operation of Israel's offensive is to render mute these tunnels.  It is my belief that Israel has the right, and obligation to it's people, to expand their offensive until the mission is declared finished.

I am all for the cease fires that have and continue to take place.  It should be used by both sides as an opportunity to reflect on the right course of action not for the present but rather for the long term.  It is to bury the dead with dignity and tend to the lame and infirm.  It is to assess the future of both peoples.  Will the cease fire hold in the end.  Probably not any time soon.  The religious extreme and anti-Semitism is strong and has a foundation on many people.  To learn to coexist is to have a personal conversion to a light they've never known.

Hoorah Israel is my take, but hoorah true peace is my hope and prayer.

Slovakia Eastern Europe: Destruction or Destiny

Parts of Eastern Slovakia suffered a devastating forestry loss during a storm in the first part of 2014.  Its estimated that 40% of the landmass of Slovakia is forest.  As evidence, the economy suffered and recovery is slow.  Two separate storms within a week both wreaked havoc with extremely rare wind velocities.  Slovakia borders Ukraine on the east, Poland on the north and Hungary on the south.  All the media attention was centered on Vladimir Putin and the Russian aggression into Crimea and the Eastern Ukraine.  Death and destruction there in Ukraine paled the natural events in Slovakia's weather.

Surprisingly less damage was placed in the lower valleys of the former Czechoslovakia.  The economic and natural disaster occurred in the higher elevations of the hills and mountains.  Hundreds of thousands of trees blown over dot the view in huge swaths of land.  A delegation from Shenandoah, Iowa observed the devastation to the landscape in Tisovec, Slovakia.  There will be no facts and figures in this post but an interesting thought to be shared.  This thought derives and is inspired by the scenes viewed of entire acreages laid waste that was once lush with green vegetation.

In a couple of heavy duty vehicles we set out on a trek up the mountainside with a local Forestry Director as our guide.  We stopped on the road not long into our journey.  In awe we pulled out our cameras and captured the ruin by the roadside.  It was easy to empathize with the feelings and concerns of the local residents.  One may think, as I did, that this event would be good for the department.  My thinking was that the trees are now brought down that eventually would need to be.  The Forestry controls the wood supply to the community and promotes future growth in a rotation schedule just as many farmers in the States do with corn, wheat and soybeans.  Instead of being a good thing this wound up a calamity in logistics.  This storm further upset the rotation and blocked important roadways for their work.  The storm had an adverse affect on an already troubled forest.

Trees uprooted straight from the ground and laid over.

When we had an up close look I marveled how the trees were wholly uprooted and laid over.  So much so that I asked if the trees were mechanically pulled up for safety reasons from the crippling affect of the storm.  No, the trees went straight over without any help from man.  It wasn't until the next day that I learned an important truth about the trees here in the Tisovec area and about man in general.  A parable if you will.

The next day a couple of us went out with another gentleman whose livelihood deals in trees and forestry as well.  He explained further the problems facing the forestry here and the infestation taking place.  Many of these trees are being plagued with dangerous insects like bark beetles and diseases.  It was explained that up until a hundred years ago the native Birch tree was used in all wood purposes whether it be heating or building.  Around that time the Spruce was introduced.  The Spruce grew just as tall as the Birch and provided an added resource.  However, nature seems to have fought back.  The Spruce roots do not go deep in the rocky ground of Slovakia.  Though tall this also makes the tree very unstable.  This is part of the reason why so many trees seemed to be uprooted  from the storm.  Their roots didn't go deep and were susceptible to the wind.  Unlike the native Birch the Spruce doesn't provide the elasticity to sway with the Slovakian winds.  Evidently, this intrusive introduction of the Spruce has brought the modern problems of insects and disease.

This learning experience brought me to reflection.  In pondering this parable of life it was clear that I was supposed to come at this particular time to learn and bring back certain lessons to the United States.  We have a growing problem in the United States and that is in personal identity and moral decay.  Too many are mutilating their minds and bodies in an outcry effort to have an identity.  Lost in the crowd and the grays of confusion many of our young and middle age seek out artificial individuality.  Regardless of popular belief I know this to be evident in the spike of body piercings, tattoos and other activities that enslave the mind like Internet gaming.  What we lack is a firm foundation that provides man stability and a lasting happiness.

Every generation has its own unique opposing problems to conquer.  This generation doesn't suffer the pains of physical labor like our ancestors or the engineering skills to map out a nuclear bomb shelter.  This generation's obstacles suppress and fog those activities and principles that generations past have utilized to gain a firm footing in life.  Our fathers and mothers, authors of our lineage, used family traditions, religious values and honesty as their compass.  If they were without wisdom they at least knew how to seek it.

Our people today thirst after that which matters most to their inner being.  Yet, they fail to find the will to search for it.  To fill this vast void, unhappiness finds alternate Band-aid quick fixes to satisfy their self worth.  It is true that this is folly because they have no comprehension of what these permanent "fixes" will do to them in the long term.  Adverse powers tell the mind to seek immediate satisfaction.

This journey into the perils of the Slovak forest was a visual parable depiction of the storms of life.  If we lose hope and fail to provide strong roots for our being we will be at the mercy of the smallest of change in the wind.  We will not have the better chance to stand like the native Birch, but one-by-one we will fall because our small roots did not provide a sure foundation in the rocky terrain of life.

The gentleman on this second day in the forest said that its not destruction what took place here but destiny.  Storms will come and go, and what we have done to ourselves and the land provide the destiny that storm gives us.  There will always be clean-up and moving on.  Those activities are a part of life, yet equally as important is learning the lessons from the tempests that plague us.

When you have acquired your foundation and after the storm passes then you can ask yourself - is it destruction or destiny?

Holocaust from Budapest: A Journal Entry From Their Footsteps

Have you lived through the Holocaust?  Have you been schooled in what its all about?  Have you visited a Holocaust memorial or museum?  Do you know of the atrocious nature of the Nazis and the Russians at the time?  Your answer to these questions are an accurate gauge of your true understanding of the plight of the Jewish experience during World War ll and even thereafter.

I recently had the opportunity to visit Tisovec, Slovakia on City business.  Our plane came in and out of Budapest, Hungary.  We stayed the last couple days prior to our departure plane in Budapest.  I had the grand and somber occasion to visit two separate Holocaust memorials.  I hold to the fact that one cannot leave either building with smiles or even happy thoughts.

The first building we visited is the Terror Haza or commonly termed the House of Terror.  It is the actual building where Nazi and later Russian fascists interrogated, tortured and even murdered Jewish citizens whom they purposely deemed and framed as vagrants and resistors.  It was first used in 1944 by the Hungarian Arrow Cross Party.  Each floor deepened the empathy in each visitor for those souls who suffered cruel indignity and death.  It's interesting that the curriculum we are taught elsewhere in the world including the United States pales in thorough information that is only known through going to those places.  I did not know the depth of the twisted nature of the evil regimes of the Nazis, Russians and factions such as the Hungarian Arrow Cross Party.  In fact, to learn of history from a different land can only bond you to the actual event only so far.  But, to walk the very city, to walk the very footsteps of millions of doomed men, women and children is most humbling indeed.  Doing so cannot be compared to.

House of Terror

As with all dictatorships and rise of liberty-stripped populations the empires start with small seemingly insignificant events.  The Jewish community was industrious, happy and included many business leaders.  Out of hate and fear the Arrow Cross restricted their prosperity, and eventually instituted policies regarding the very nature of man including procreation between a Jew and a non-Jew.  Then this now isolated people had to wear the Yellow Star of David.  The categorization of this people had already begun.

Officers at the House of Terror quickly became known as masters of life and death.  In infamy the address 60 Andrassy Boulevard became.  The knot in the noose of fear and terror housed the horrors of what men can possibly do to another from 1944 through 1957.

The other building was the Holocaust Memorial Center.  It also was very somber.  It listed several torture techniques that is unconscionable to even fair minded human beings.  There are reports of crushing a man's testicles and crushing a woman's uterus as a token and an assurance that a Jew cannot procreate.  My Holy God!  The dredging feeling in the heart is wrenching.  Also disturbing was individual life stories being told.  Many stories of couples and families happy and prosperous one day and in the camps the next.  You see pictures of happy couples smiling and in love.  It was difficult to see such happiness and to already know their demise in such short few days, months or years.  The lasting symbol tribute to the Holocaust victims was the Tree of Life outside the Holocaust Memorial Center.

The Tree of Life

It was difficult indeed to comprehend especially with the connection I personally have with the departed.  The experience forces the organization of the mind into deep reflection.  I left the building and returned to a fast-paced busy world of Budapest.  I watched as people walked to and fro and drove like mad men (as is custom in Budapest) to their respective destinations.  Many are used to the Holocaust memorials in their midst.  Many are oblivious to them and express their disinterest.  I marvel how we as a people can forget and fail to humble ourselves to such events that took place literally not even 60 years ago.

As far as God and human events are concerned I believe two things.  God allows things to happen or God invokes or causes things to happen.  It is clear that those dark years were allowed to happen.  If something is allowed to happen then we are to learn from it.  Right?  As I reflect as people went about their business I have to ask myself - are we or have we learned?

History marks the way.  That which is failed to be learned is doomed to happen again.  9.75 out of every 10 persons would say that such things can never happen again.  It is impossible with our modern sense of morality and technology.  Yet, I bet the populous thought the very same thing in 1935.

I am here to tell you that it can happen again.  With our technology and might I foresee such an event happening swift, quick and on such a widespread scale that will shadow even the fiery chambers of the death camps.  May we ever learn the lessons of the Holocaust and hold sway the adverse forces that seek it.